There weren't many chances in the first period. Colin McDonald had the best chance when he ripped a slapper off the short-side post past Gerber, but other than that neither goalie had to make a quality save.

NOTES FROM THE FIRST PERIOD.

Linus Omark isn't afraid to try things. He tried to deflect the puck over his head, but Dubnyk scooped it out of mid air. Later Omark got too fancy in his own zone, trying to dance around a forechecker. He'll need to realize quickly that won't fly in the NHL.

Ales Hemsky takes a rare penalty, but team white does nothing on the PP.

A hit. McDonald runs into Richard Petiot, and gets his stick up a bit.

You can tell this is the first real scrimmage for the players, as they are very sloppy.

NOTES FROM SECOND

Liam Reddox with a great burst of speed down the right side, cuts to the middle, goes around Jeff Petry but fans on the shot. Next shift out Reddox controls the puck down low. Next shift he backchecks and breaks up the rush. Reddox gives you his best effort every shift. He can kill penalties, and he will work his ass off. I think he'll push Ryan Jones for a spot on the team.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I find it interesting that Dubnyk got the start for team blue, while Deslauriers came off the bench. I think the backup job is Dubnyk's to lose.

Deslauriers faces five shots in his first five minutes.

O'Marra takes a penalty with 30 seconds left in the period. Team blue starts the PP with Brule, Fraser, and McDonald. Blue starts the 3rd with a :30 PP. Horcoff's line with Foster and Smid start.

NOTES FROM THE THIRD

Foster finally gives the crowd something to cheer about as he one-times a bullet from the point. Hemsky with a nice saucer pass, and Hall get the assists. O'Marra's penalty expired one second earlier, so no PP goal, but Foster's shot looks almost as hard as Sheldon Souray's. I think Foster gets it away quicker than Souray.

Paajarvi with a great cross-ice pass to Cogliano and he rips it off the cross bar. Those two have had some chemistry from the beginning of camp and I bet Renney will try them in a few exhibition games.

Foster takes a one-minute roughing penalty on Omark. Earlier in the shift Omark made a sick cross-ice-saucer pass from the right hashmarks to a pinching Petiot.

Horcoff knocks the bouncing puck faway from Gagner, races in shorthanded and slides a backhand home and team blue leads 2-0. Tom Gilbert must have yelled out, "number 77" to the ref, because he somehow gets an assist on the play.

Team Blue lighting up Roy in the 3rd, as a great three-way passing play from Hemsky-to-Horcoff-to-Hall, and the first overall pick slides it past a stretched out Roy.

On this next shift Hall takes a Horcoff pass in full flight down the left side, does a quick little toe drag in front of Whitney and snaps one off Roy's shoulder. Hall has looked more comfortable with every shift. Just like the rookie tournament, and first day of camp he looked nervous at the start, which is understandable considering he is 18, and progressively got better.

Final score 3-0. Final shots 23-18 in favour of team blue. Deslaurier stops all 12 shots, while Roy allowed three goals on 11 shots. He didn't allow a soft goal, and really didn't have much of a chance on any of the them.

LINEUP FOR TOMORROW???

The players who will play in Vancouver tomorrow will skate at nine at Rexall Place. Hall will not play in Vancouver, which shouldn't surprise anyone. No way were the Oilers going to let him play his first game v. an NHL team on the road especially when Thursday's game is live on TSN.

I do know that Horcoff will centre Eberle and Giroux tomorrow. Dubnyk and Gerber will be the goalies. We will find out the rest of the lineup tomorrow morning.

Nikolai Khabibulin is close to playing. Right now it seems more mental than physical for him. Renney will see how Khabibulin feels Thursday morning before making a decision on when he plays. He might wait a few more days before putting him in between the pipes.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

He played great. Created his own chances, worked his ass off on the boards, went toe to toe against guys bigger than him and come out with the puck. He may have had a giveaway or two, but it seemed like he wasn't getting much help from his line mates.

Now, if the fantastic hockey mind of Bob "Foster" and the rest of media would put the same critical standards to the invisible Eberle, I'd like that more.

Was nice to see the win for Blue; for some reason my predictonometer has come under fire recently.

Also nice to see Reddox looking like he still has something to prove. While I harbour no illusions about Rudy's talent, I still think he makes the team as a whole better by his presence and I wouldn't mind seeing him finally catch a break. If ever there were anyone to earn an NHL paycheck on determination and sweat alone, he'd be the guy that did it.

Pretty choppy for four days into camp, i guess that's to be expected with this being their first real scrimmage. Tempo will be considerably higher tommorow and thursday, there will be a few dozen eggs broken in the corners tommorow i'm sure

Ya, I thouth it was choppy too. Thought Brule looked real good. Hall, hemsky and horc got better every shift. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few days of preseason games and how some lines might start to click.

After watching the game the players that really stood out to me were....

Hall and Hemsky looked great together. Hall's feet are always moving and to me they are the perfect fit for each other. Horcoff had wheels but still trys to do to much. I think a monkey could center those two and be fine.

Omark definitly stood out. He wasnt afraid to go to touch areas and does dare i say Schremp like things with the puck. Question is will he be able to do that when he is actually getting hit in real game situations.

Foster has a boomer! And he definitly gets it off fast.

Gotta admit....Reddox brings energy every shift and work make a great 4th liner.

Stortini....feel two times! haha.

Magnus and Cogs looked good too. Its only a matter of time till Magnus becomes a star!!

Joey belted out the national anthem and sounded excellent once again! ;)

Hey Dude I seen you tweeted the flames game was on Shaw 301 and 320. Did you watch, and was it PPV? I see the guide has the Oiler game tomorrow night on the same channels, but says it's PPV, what gives will I have to pay? Did you pay to watch?

Is it just me, or did it seem as though Hemsky and Hall were laughing during Moss' rendition of Oh' Canada? It almost seemed as though they were a couple of kids trying not to laugh in class (but it made them laugh even more).

I have to say, that although I understand the point of the game, and I think it is a great gesture, I really didn't enjoy watching it at all. I know they havent scrimmaged much, and the reasons are plentiful as to why.....but that was just some brutal, choppy, unorganized, unentertaining hockey.

Perhaps even the format played into it as well.

I wasn't expecting much, which is a good thing otherwise I would be dissappointed.

Good for the Bears, and the group where Joey Lives, but man that hockey stunk.

Is it just me, or did it seem as though Hemsky and Hall were laughing during Moss' rendition of Oh' Canada? It almost seemed as though they were a couple of kids trying not to laugh in class (but it made them laugh even more).

I noticed that too, Hemsky actually had to lean forward so people couldn't see his face and Hall was smiling from ear to ear. Good stuff...hopefully they're gelling and will light the hell out of the lamp together all year.

Is it just me or was Bob Stauffer borderline offensive when speaking with open disgust about "stats geeks" (his words, uttered with contempt) when he was talking about Omark.

I mean, its obvious that past performance has no baring on future performance. The only good indications of a player are gut feelings, thats the best way to go. I mean, all those moronic stats geeks were touting Penner to be a good player. Such ridiculous ideas.

Hey Dude I seen you tweeted the flames game was on Shaw 301 and 320. Did you watch, and was it PPV? I see the guide has the Oiler game tomorrow night on the same channels, but says it's PPV, what gives will I have to pay? Did you pay to watch?

For SHAW users, Sportsnet One is ch. 159, however, since the games are still only on regionally, they have a "companion" channel. So from what I understand, Flames/Oilers games will be on ch. 320. There was NO FEE last night (or for the Oil game tonight) as its on a free preview, but I presume we will have to add the channel to our packages shortly.

you are in luck! Telus TV has it on Channels 106 (sd) and 677 (hd) There is a FAQ on their website about it. For now it is a 'free trial'. I was watching some Jay's baseball stuff last night on it.
Telus says it is going to package it with one of their sports groupings but they didn't say which one, I sincerely hope they don't put it witht he 'top up' sports group as I don't have that one. I just have the regular sport group.

Finally some almost real hockey!! I saw the streaming feed on the Oilers website for the flames vs oilers rookies which was interesting but now we get to see what the team might look like.

Well 10 bucks to get in and still close to a hundred buck night. Oh well, a good chunk was for charity.

As for the game I really found it hard to get a read on certain guys. Not sure if it was because I didn't know the numbers or what.

I was really trying to take a look and see how guys were skating, but a guy like Giroux who has been talked about with his skating abilities didn't seem to have any problems creating chances. It seemed that when something was happening for team white that #12 seemed to have the puck.

Horcoff looked amazing and the whole HHH line seemed to work well together. It was funny to see Hemsky being the vocal one at times and telling Hall where to be. Hall reminds me off Hemsky from past years. Has no idea where to be without the puck in the defensive zone.

Motin looked brutal last night. Seemed to get tripped up and made poor defensive decisions. Even Belle if he didn't have his speed I don't know what he'd do. If he can learn where to play in his own zone he would be a far more effective d-man.

Finally Omark, I'd almost like him to make Eberle over the team if he keeps it up. The fire in this guy with and without the puck was pretty amazing. From what I seen Omark was far more agressive and went for the puck and while Eberle has some amazing offensive skills if he doesn't improve his play without the puck I'm not sure it's worth it to throw him in the lineup.

Again it was only a scrimmage, but I expected the younger guys that haven't played in the NHL before to have played hard last night.

Well 10 bucks to get in and still close to a hundred buck night. Oh well, a good chunk was for charity.

As for the game I really found it hard to get a read on certain guys. Not sure if it was because I didn't know the numbers or what.

I was really trying to take a look and see how guys were skating, but a guy like Giroux who has been talked about with his skating abilities didn't seem to have any problems creating chances. It seemed that when something was happening for team white that #12 seemed to have the puck.

Horcoff looked amazing and the whole HHH line seemed to work well together. It was funny to see Hemsky being the vocal one at times and telling Hall where to be. Hall reminds me off Hemsky from past years. Has no idea where to be without the puck in the defensive zone.

Motin looked brutal last night. Seemed to get tripped up and made poor defensive decisions. Even Belle if he didn't have his speed I don't know what he'd do. If he can learn where to play in his own zone he would be a far more effective d-man.

Finally Omark, I'd almost like him to make Eberle over the team if he keeps it up. The fire in this guy with and without the puck was pretty amazing. From what I seen Omark was far more agressive and went for the puck and while Eberle has some amazing offensive skills if he doesn't improve his play without the puck I'm not sure it's worth it to throw him in the lineup.

Again it was only a scrimmage, but I expected the younger guys that haven't played in the NHL before to have played hard last night.

Nice to hear about Hemsky. It'd be pretty sweat if he took it apon himself to take more of a leadership role.

Is it just me or was Bob Stauffer borderline offensive when speaking with open disgust about "stats geeks" (his words, uttered with contempt) when he was talking about Omark.

I mean, its obvious that past performance has no baring on future performance. The only good indications of a player are gut feelings, thats the best way to go. I mean, all those moronic stats geeks were touting Penner to be a good player. Such ridiculous ideas.

Yeah, he's clearly and openly jealous of guys like Willis who come up with fascinating insights into the game using more obscure stats, and less personal experience.

It's weird, because he loves the idea of Moneyball, he used to work as a stats guy, and he's got a head full of useless stats about hundreds and hudreds of hockey players.

He's also jealous of guys like Rishaug, because it's easier to get a TV job when you look like Rishaug, not Stauffer.

At this point, I find it hard to understand why he talks down about anyone anymore, I mean he paid his dues and he's doing colour in the NHL, does life get any better?

Maybe Gregor can answer this, but are the Oilers as a whole that much more vocal this year? Or was it because there was only 6000 fans so it was easier to here? I kinda have to lean towards them being more vocal as last year with a sold out barn you could usually hear a pin drop.

While I have no issues listening to Willis's explanation of why the third-pairing defenseman from the Sabres is better than the second-pairing defenseman from chez Oil based on 25 defensive-zone clearing attempts in three comparable games with the same opponent . . .

. . . I'm thinking that looking for advanced stats analysis from the Joey Moss Cup is akin to seeing the flames of passion dancing in the eyes of your supermarket cashier as she bags your groceries.

I know this is the wrong thread, but after watching last night I am changing my goat and star vote (can you do that???)

Star: Hemsky

Goat: Penner

I HAVE to say Penner because I watched parts of the game on-line and he is SLOW as hell. There is NO way he'll be on the first line with he TERRIBLE hand-eye, lack of deking skills AND questionable atheletic abilities.

30+ goals last year, right? That was last year when he played significant amount of time on the first line powerplay... no WAY he'll see that much PP again this year with all the youthful guns the Oil have now.

I know this is the wrong thread, but after watching last night I am changing my goat and star vote (can you do that???)

Star: Hemsky

Goat: Penner

I HAVE to say Penner because I watched parts of the game on-line and he is SLOW as hell. There is NO way he'll be on the first line with he TERRIBLE hand-eye, lack of deking skills AND questionable atheletic abilities.

30+ goals last year, right? That was last year when he played significant amount of time on the first line powerplay... no WAY he'll see that much PP again this year with all the youthful guns the Oil have now.

Interesting. I think he proved last year that he has ELITE level hand-eye and deking skills (in tight anyways) and the only real question marks could be conditioning and desire.